Small tweaks and suggestions

[Slytacular]

Very nice mod to play while I'm working on MKTW. A few things that sort of bothered me while playing.

Siege weapons literally fire like 19th-20th century artillery. The rounds make sense being a bit accurate, but the distance the rounds fire resemble WW1 mortar teams. Trebuchets and medieval cannons don't even fire as far as they should in this mod. I had to hide my army behind a small piece of cliff for ten-twenty minutes to prevent my army getting totaled.

Why are the Eastern factions and Seleucids wearing Sassanid and Migration Era spangen helmets? It seems like a petty change, but at least the Successor States should look the part. Please use the period stuff, stay away from Attila helmets.

Galatian mercenaries look really weird with the crazy amount of equipment variation. Especially when you throw on crested helmets that would seem suitable for officers.

A larger change, but I get this frustration from every Roman Era game. The Gauls only seem to progress up from Hollywood to the Second Triumvirate, the Hellenic/Successor States are in a Technological purgatory, and the Romans jump into the future with 2nd century A.D. stuff. Should allow the factions to have Roman style armies that reflect their geographical Roman Provincial armies. An argument would be that these factions would be annihilated historically, but for the sake of some technological progression and parallel universe, most people in the Mediterranean were "Romanizing" their armies.

[synagas]

In regards to artillery, I wouldn't mind if they cut back range if they improved accuracy at least a tiny bit... I have my large catapults just outside of tower fire range and while aiming at one gate tower I can end up hitting a section of wall on the other side of the other gate tower. At short intervals, their inaccuracy is so horrible it isn't funny. It is nice that they don't destroy towers in one or two shots, but the 1% per hit damage they do suggest a huge need for some accuracy improvement. As it stands, with two large ongars I am able to take down the gate and a single wall section before running out of ammo, simply because of how badly inaccurate they are.

[Swarbs]

Imo artillery in this mod is actually very historical. The classical period wasn't like medieval times where walls could be reduced at will as in vanilla. The Romans generally only used their catapults and other artillery to disrupt enemy lines in battle and to clear crenellations and defenders from the wall before attacking with siege equipment. I'm not aware of many accounts of walls being collapsed by artillery. Being able to only breach a single wall section is broadly historical in that regard.

At the same time, classical artillery did have good range and decent accuracy. Roman mangonels could reach around 1300 feet (400 metres) so definitely long enough to span most battlefields. The issue, imo, is with the casualties they inflict. When armies were hit with rocks and other missiles they wouldn't just stand there and be flattened, they would move out of the way and run for cover, hence artillery being used to disrupt enemy lines, and only being widely used at close range before engagement, not bombarding across the battlefield to kill all soldiers.

Not sure how the mod could reflect that, maybe reducing the damage of artillery (and strength of buildings proportionately) so fewer soldiers die from bombardment. Then increase it's impact on fatigue and morale of the unit(s) under bombardment so it can be used to disrupt and reduce combat effectiveness without being like a truck driven through the ranks. Ideally only 1-2 soldiers max would die in every direct artillery hit, but the morale of the unit as a whole would fall more when under bombardment.

[synagas]

Imo artillery in this mod is actually very historical. The classical period wasn't like medieval times where walls could be reduced at will as in vanilla. The Romans generally only used their catapults and other artillery to disrupt enemy lines in battle and to clear crenellations and defenders from the wall before attacking with siege equipment. I'm not aware of many accounts of walls being collapsed by artillery. Being able to only breach a single wall section is broadly historical in that regard.

At the same time, classical artillery did have good range and decent accuracy. Roman mangonels could reach around 1300 feet (400 metres) so definitely long enough to span most battlefields. The issue, imo, is with the casualties they inflict. When armies were hit with rocks and other missiles they wouldn't just stand there and be flattened, they would move out of the way and run for cover, hence artillery being used to disrupt enemy lines, and only being widely used at close range before engagement, not bombarding across the battlefield to kill all soldiers.

Fair point about the artillery, though the ongar was used to breach holes in city walls when applicable, especially the wooden ones I believe. Regardless though, if that isn't the intent for the artillery in AE, no issues, but would mean accuracy is even more important. Right now, it is far too dangerous to use the artillery (bigger pieces at least) for anything near your own army. I wouldn't mind a big damage decrease (though the explosion doesn't seem that large anyways) if it was more accurate. Maybe higher accuracy but a quick loss in fatigue so it plummets? Forces you to slow down?

[Sheridan]

Appreciate all the feedback. In regards to visuals, it's not my area, but I think the team will look into visual inaccuracies once we've delivered this mod out of Beta. The artillery argument is hard for me to comment on without testing. I agree that the accuracy shouldn't be too high. Reducing damage is actually possible through reducing the impact area, which wouldn't change anything visually

[Julio-Claudian]

There are Roman sources which speak of enemies being 'equipped like our soldiers', as in after the style of Roman legionaries so that isn't complete fantasy. It was just adopting what was most effective in the same way the phalanx spread.
Though only after Rome became dominant of course.

[druchii7]

Most heavy artillery was mainly used to siege. It was very hard to transport and slow to fire and quite imprecise, as far as I read. Ballista was also rather rare, but rock launching ballistae were more precise and often prefered to onagers. Scorpions though were the true battlefield designed artillery pieces and most of their improvements were to improve precission and to allow direct targettin of the blank, clearing components that prevented the operator from aiming clearly.

[KAM 2150]

I am not sure if onagers were even invented in this timeframe (mid IV AD?) but Roman artillery was sometimes too accurate as there was even a case in which Gauls/Britons knew that another projectile will land in exact same place.

[Clint_Eastwood]

I am not sure if onagers were even invented in this timeframe (mid IV AD?) but Roman artillery was sometimes too accurate as there was even a case in which Gauls/Britons knew that another projectile will land in exact same place.

I think some "KAM BAI Love" is also needed in this mod, not that the AE team have done a great job already but KAM is some robotic cyborg human who knows the symantics to make perfect BAI in battles!!

[KAM 2150]

I don't know anything that Petellius would not know/tried already

[Clint_Eastwood]

I don't know anything that Petellius would not know/tried already

Exactly as I thought, two modding gods collaborating!!! This is what I like about DEI and AE teams as it seems you have worked very well together in the past and may it continue..